Shark Tank star sinks teeth into promoting NASCAR driver

Daymond John, co-founder and chief executive officer of FUBU, is promoting NASCAR driver Alex Bowman. John participates in "Shark Tank," a show in which contestants pitch business ideas to a panel of investors on ABC.(Photo: Frederick M. Brown, Getty Images)

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FUBU founder Daymond John is helping Nationwide Series rookie Alex Bowman with marketing

John, who appears on ABC's "Shark Tank," plans to assist with branding and sponsorship

FONTANA, Calif. — On ABC's Shark Tank, entrepreneurs make pitches to investors — the "sharks" — in hopes of getting their support.

NASCAR Nationwide Series rookie Alex Bowman already has one shark in his corner.

Daymond John, the creator of apparel brand FUBU and a familiar face to Shark Tank fans, has partnered with Bowman to help with the 19-year-old driver's branding and sponsorship.

John was at Auto Club Speedway on Saturday to meet with Bowman and wave the green flag for the Nationwide race.

"I think he's a rock star," John told USA TODAY Sports. "Not only is he effective and a great product in NASCAR, I think it can really move to other areas of popular culture.

"Obviously, I love working with brands, and he's the truth as far as I'm concerned."

Bowman, who drives for RAB Racing, will run just his ninth career NASCAR race Saturday afternoon. After finishing fourth in the ARCA standings last season (and winning four times), Bowman is eighth in the point standings with two top-10 results. He finished third in the crash-marred Daytona race and was eighth at Las Vegas.

John, who has worked with stars such as Pitbull and the Kardashians, said he sees the same level of career focus in Bowman.

After sitting down with Bowman and his father, John was impressed with the youngster's "endearing, kind and driven" personality. But after watching his races, "I got caught up in it."

"I said, 'I want to be part of this kid, because he's going far,' " John said. "He's scaleable, he's young and he also hits that popular culture."

But why Bowman? After all, there are plenty of drivers with potential in NASCAR.

"You know when you see somebody who's got 'it'?" John said. "That's Alex."

Thanks to their relationship, John will attempt to link his many connections with Bowman. He hopes through a combination of brand-building and Bowman doing his part with on-track success, potential new sponsors might become interested.

Specifically, John said he was picturing companies who might say, "We like that space, we've always wanted to be in that space but we don't know anything about it. But we have a trusted guy like Daymond and we feel comfortable now going in there."

But he emphasized Bowman will have to be successful in NASCAR for it to work. John said he's not a "rainmaker" who might say, "Let me get you in trouble over here to get press."

"It's about being a wonderful kid and an amazing driver," he said.

In general, John said he believes NASCAR is "America's sport" because it touches a wide variety of people. Asked what it could do to get back to the level it was in the mid-2000s, John said more stars would help.

"The easiest thing to sell is the truth," he said. "More of the media — not the NASCAR media, but the pop culture media — would help it. You know, reality shows and things like that — but not depicted in the wrong way, you know what I mean?

"It's going to come around. You can't just ignore this big monster of a sport Americans love. It just takes some time."